believed those he had never seen would amount to four or five times as many.

He does; you see, then, Edward, how impossible it is for any person to know everything. No one knows the entire history of a little plant. He who boasts that he knows everything, we may be sure has but very little knowledge. Sir Isaac Newton said, that, so far from entertaining any such views, he looked on himself as a child, who had been wandering with his play-fellows on the sea-shore; but that he had been more fortunate in having, now and then, picked up a more shining pebble or shell than his companions. How true is the sentiment, that our modesty and humility will be in proportion to our attainments.

According to St. Pierre's account of the strawberry plant, it would seem that we do not fully know anything.

True, Edward: yet the assertion of another foreign writer on this subject, appears to me a little extravagant; he says, that if any one should live a hundred years, and devote the whole of his time to the particular study of a single plant, that at the end of his

days, there would be many things in its nature and history, which he did not observe, or which he was incapable of perceiving.

But see, Papa, what a fine bunch of primroses there is on that bank; I will gather them.

Do; Kirke White prettily remarks, that Spring, in his conflict with Winter, threw the primrose on the bank, as a trophy of his victory over his stormy rival.

Here, Papa, they are; do smell them, they are so

sweet.

And please tell me to what class and order they belong in the science of Botany.

I will do so with pleasure; give me one of them. Its technical name is, primula vulgaris. See, here are five stamens; it must belong then to the class Pentandria. In this same class are the cowslip, honeysuckle, violet, nightshade, currant, gooseberry, ivy, periwinkle, polyanthus, auricula, hops, elm, carrot, hemlock, parsnip, parsley, caraway, elder, and chickweed. The primrose has but one pointal; it is, therefore, in the first order, or Monogynia. As cultivated in our gardens, they are yellow, and white, of several shades, and red; and double white, red, and yellow. They continue in blossom five or six weeks. It is a pretty, modest, and fragrant flower.

Truly, I love all the seasons, with their varied and beautiful productions. I love to walk abroad, and muse on God's wisdom and loving-kindness in this his great temple. The fine verses of Cowper, in which he just touches on the seasons, indeed express the very feelings of my heart;—

Winter has a joy for me

While the Saviour's charms I read, Lowly, meek, from blemish free,

In the snow-drop's pensive head.

Spring returns, and brings along
Life-invigorating suns;

Hark! the turtle's plaintive song,
Seems to speak his dying groans!

Summer has a thousand charms.
All expressive of his worth;
'Tis his sun that lights and warms,
His the air that cools the earth.

What! has Autumn left to say
Nothing of a Saviour's grace?
Yes, the beams of milder day,
Tell me of his smiling face.

Light appears with early dawn:

While the sun makes haste to rise,

See his bleeding beauties drawn
On the blushes of the skies.

Evening with a silent pace,

Slowly moving in the west, Shows an emblem of his grace, Points to an eternal rest.

17

WALK II

CONTENTS.

THE WIND ITS VELOCITY-TRADE WINDS-THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN
-THE COMMON WREN-THE WRYNECK-THE BLACKTHORN-THE ELM
IVY-THE BLACKBIRD-THE NESTS OF BIRDS-THE ORIOLUS, AND

TAYLOR BIRD.

WERE you not alarmed with the wind last night,
Papa? I awoke several times, and I thought the very
house shook.

I heard it, Edward, but was not much alarmed. I
recollected, that the winds, no less than the waves,
are under the control of the Most High; the raging
storm does but fulfil his word.

Certainly, there is something very grand in the
sound of the tempest; but do not such winds as we
heard last night produce much mischief?

They do occasionally; you recollect, last winter
they tore up, by the very roots, several of the large